My 2010

It's pretty unbelievable that another year has passed! It's true what they say about time passing faster when you get older! Anyway, this is my yearly attempt at summarizing all that happened in that year...

Work
I actually still work for the same company as last year! After a few turbulent years I've finally found a steady work environment again. I'm learning a lot about HR Management, which is also part of my responsibilities. The workload is very heavy though and I really have to watch the work-life balance to avoid coming too close to a burn-out situation. It's a good thing I really like the job and the variety of responsibilities!

Love
We've been living together for almost a year now and so far so good! Our love is only getting stronger and I really do believe that I've found the love of my life!

Health
The biggest news here is probably the lasik eye surgery I've had in July 2010. I can't even begin to explain how wonderful it is to wake up and see! No more glasses, no more contact lenses... No more eye infections either, which is the reason why I could finally have the lasik surgery. They disappeared as sudden as they appeared almost 5 years ago! Good riddance!

House
Well, our house is for sale at the moment! One of the requirements of my current job is that I live within 30km of the office. Right now it's 89km, so time to move... Unfortunately the house market isn't very good and I already know that I'll have to sell the house at a loss. I am also struggling with leaving my current home town, as my entire social life is here and I don't find it very easy to start all over in a new place. On the other hand, it will be really nice to start a new home together and find something that pleases us both. But first we've got to sell this place... Will you keep your fingers crossed for us?

Cats
Tux & Roxy are both well. They had to get used to collars (?) this year with a magnet on it to open the cat flap. An unfortunate measure we had to take to stop other cats from coming into the house!

Dancing
We did it again, promoting to the next class within one year! We are now dancing in the one-but-highest class for our age group in The Netherlands. Progress is getting harder and slower, but we're definitely still growing. Our biggest challenge is to add more power and dynamics to our dancing, which is what we'll focus on for 2011. I also have a beautiful new dress and we've added an extra trainer who together with our regular trainer will help us progress even further. Another highlight of 2010 was of course the trip we won to Vienna where we had lessons from a top dance, Anastasia Stiglitz, to help improve our Viennese Waltz!

That pretty much sums up 2010 for me! I'm looking forward to what 2011 will bring us and will end this blog with my favourite new year wish:

May the best of 2010 be the worst of 2011!

Neverland - and no, this is not about Michael Jackson!

One of the things I enjoy doing is taking part in surveys. All kinds of surveys, about business, food, politics, you name it! Most of these surveys start of with a few basic questions about yourself. Things like: your age, level of education, whether you're employed or not... And that's where I get stuck these days.

I am in a bit of a funny situation right now:
- I am not working for a company, yet I'm also not unemployed
- I don't get paid my salary, nor am I on unemployment benefits, but I do get paid what my salary used to be

The reason for this is the following: my most recent employer went bankrupt last month. Since they had already told me in April that they wouldn't be able to renew my yearly contract due to the crisis I had already searched for and found a new job. This new job has a start date of September 1st. The (old) company went bankrupt mid-July and all employees were fired by the lawyer handling the bankruptcy. So there I was, being fired after I had already quit! Weird situation... What was lucky for the employees is that the institution which handles the unemployment benefits in The Netherlands also continues to pay out salaries for 4 - 6 weeks after a bankruptcy - the notice period. And in our case it was 6 weeks, which means for me that I only have a gap of 1 week before I start my new job.

So in between the bankruptcy and my new job I am in a kind of Neverland. I've decided to call it my 'in-between-jobs' period, but if you can think of a better name, let me know! I count myself lucky that I already have a new job waiting for me, and I hope with all my heart that my former colleagues will also find something new soon!

Ups and downs in these tough times

The last few days have been pretty tough... The continuing stories about how bad the crisis is and how the recession is worse than expected combined with my own current extremely uncertain job situation have really gotten to me lately.

Yes, there are still jobs to be had, but not a lot and there's a lot of competition for each interesting looking job. On top of that the pay for all of the jobs I've applied for so far is a lot less then what I've been used to and what my mortgage is based on. Selling the house is not an option either, as I would have to sell with a big loss at the moment due to the lower house prices. So not a lot to be cheerful about. Normally I'm not really prone to depression or pessimism, but the past few days have been really, really tough.

It took me 10 years to build up my life to where I am now, after returning back from the UK with next to nothing other than a huge debt, some books, CDs and my clothes. So I know I'm capable of crawling out of a shit hole and fighting for a better life. Thing is though... I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO DO THAT AGAIN. So there. I had to get that off my chest.

So today I was looking at the dreary weather outside, with rain resembling the interior of a car wash, and that didn't make me feel a whole lot better. After having a brainstorming session with my boyfriend on what we could do that would take us out of the house for a bit we decided to drive to the coast and walk on the beach for a bit. My boyfriend decided on the location: Egmond aan Zee - a town neither of us had ever been to before. When we got there, the sun came out, and even though it was windy, the wind wasn't cold. So we had a nice long walk on the beach, which we ended with drinks in a beach bar. The wind, sun, sea, beach & company really cheered me up and made me feel better. This was topped of with a good meal in one of the local restaurants, after which we had a huge ice cream before driving back home. So now I feel a whole lot better again, and ready to start the new week, with hopefully a really good job coming my way. Or a good lottery win, that would be quite allright too! :-)

Sorry, so sorry... but we can't renew your contract...

That's what I got to hear from my boss earlier this week... not that surprising really, since even an idiot can see that there isn't enough work to keep everyone busy. And that means no income for the company, while there are still bills to pay... On top of that I'm the newest employee and the only one still on a 1-year contract and thus the easiest to 'get rid of'. But still, even if it was expected, it's not easy to hear this kind of news, nor to bring it. My manager was also visibly shaken that he had to give bad news.

My contract runs until the end of October, which gives me about 6 months to find something new. Having taken a first look at jobs in the learning consultancy / training management space I can tell you that while 6 months sounds like a lot of time, it won't be easy to find something. There simply aren't a lot of companies hiring at the moment, while the number of people looking for a job keeps increasing.

Having said that, I'm an optimist and a positive thinker and I'm convinced that things will work out. It's too bad really that becoming a professional dancer is barely an option, since I love dancing so much! I'm too old now to become a professional, and they pay isn't all that either.

So, my challenge for the next few months: finding a job that I feel just as passionate about as I do about dancing (and which will pay the mortgage!) ;-)

Dare I say it....?

After my last experience I'm a little hesitant to sound too enthused about my job. But... in my new job:

- I'm allowed and encouraged to use my creativity
- I'm trusted from day 1 with training for our most important clients
- Innovation is appreciated
- We have a lot of fun as a team, even though we don't see each other a lot
- We're constantly on the look-out for new ways of learning
- Colleagues respect each other and are willing to share their knowledge as well as learn from each other
- Blended learning is what is is: blended learning
- There is NO COLD ACQUISITION
- All training is tailor-made for a customer's specific needs, no off-the-shelf stuff!
- There is a lot of opportunity to learn more, both about training as well as about HRM

So dare I say it, after only being in the job for just over 1 month? I think I do:

I LOVE MY NEW JOB!

Another one bites the dust...

So today was my last day at this job, and what a day it was... I won't go into details here, this is the internet after all, but I can tell you that the stuff that happens at this place has left me flabbergasted (love that word) more than once. And today was certainly one of those days. All in all I've learned a lot there... a lot of good things, but certainly also how things should not be done :-) At least not according to Tink's Law.

On the positive side I finally got an email that my new Latin dance shows are on their way to my feet. This is great news, because as of the 18th of October I'll have three dance competitions on 3 consequetive Saturdays, two of which will include Latin American dancing. So far I've done all my dancing and competitions on ballroom shoes. And during the competition on the 18th there's a good chance that we'll get promoted to the next level if we make it to the final round. And of course I want to wear the right shoes for that!

In between jobs

At the moment I'm kinda in-between jobs... Tomorrow I'll be handing over my laptop, phone, keys etc. to my current employer and on the 1st of November I'll start my new job as senior learning consultant for a training company. Right now I'm at home, cleaning up the hard drive of my laptop, mailbox and phone memory while watching the financial crisis news on CNN.

So what to do during the 3 weeks off? There are still boxes to unpack from my move nearly 1 1/2 year ago... There's always tidying up to do as I'm not the most organized person when it comes to housekeeping... My boyfriend has several vacation days left for the year, so we could take some time off together... I need to get a new central heating system and my fireplace is 'leaking' so that needs to get fixed... There's weeds growing in my garden that are by now taller than I am... My wardrobe is too full and needs sorting out... There are friends to see and/or write and/or call...

But for now I don't get much further than watching the news and wondering what this is going to mean for us all. It's history in the making, for sure, but not a piece of history that a lot of people were hoping for. I have only just become active on the stock market, but my thoughts are with all those people that see their savings and retirement money go down the drain. Let's hope things recover soon and that the world has learned another valueable lesson...